Houston Building Gets a Façade Lift

HOUSTON – Constructed in 1982, the Capital One Plaza building here needed work on its travertine cladding … and Western Specialty Contractors answered with a hefty face lift.

Click photo to enlargeWestern’s Houston branch removed and replaced 260 panels – at 700 lbs. each – and repaired other damaged panels at the 22-story building.

Western’s scope of work for property manager CBRE included repairs by using a combination of re-pinning using Helical Anchors and performing Dutchmen repairs, a technique used to replace only the faulty portion of a stone with a new stone material that closely matches.

“One of the main challenges on the project was lifting the heavy travertine pieces to their places on the building’s new facade without damaging them,” said Patrick Sheeran, Western Houston manager. “Fortunately for Western, a stone fabricator located next door to our offices let us use their pneumatic stone vacuum lifter which is capable of handling stone pieces of up to 2,200 lbs.”

All existing sealants on the building were also replaced including the CMU backup joints, travertine panel joints, window perimeter joints and glass butt joints. The entire building was also cleaned and parged to create a continuous surface by filling surface air voids and bug holes in the masonry walls.

With a little ingenuity and use of the pneumatic vacuum, Western crews were able to successfully complete the project within 20 months. The project received a Pinnacle Award of Merit: Renovation/Restoration from the Marble Institute of America (MIA).

Family-owned and -operated for 100 years, Western Specialty Contractors is the nation’s largest specialty contractor in masonry and concrete restoration, waterproofing and specialty roofing. Western is headquartered in St. Louis, with more than 30 branch offices nationwide and more than 1,200 professionals employed.

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